Reality Fighters for PS Vita: Alright for fighting, but reality bites

When Reality Fighters was announced by Sony as being part of the backbone of the portable PS Vita release and we first saw footage of the game, we have to admit it looked like a pretty silly combat game and no where in the same league as many popular and long-established fighting franchises. But the latest video footage of the Augmented Reality-based title has us thinking again!

Whilst originally shaping up to be a no-contest in the fight league, akin to Virtua Fighter, we can now see that Reality Fighters is not merely trading on its SmartAR gimmick – but it’s a legit contender. The fighting game-play looks slick and fast, with blows traded at a pace that would rival Tekken or even the legendary Street Fighter and the early point-of-sale – the real-world real-time environment is actually the more disappointing element

As you will see in the video, fighters continue to brawl in the foreground as passers-by walk across the camera’s view, which makes the idea of ‘reality’ (despite being massively free-roaming) seem just a little too unreal. Character interaction in relation to objects and people may yet be worked into the Reality Fighters game, which isn’t due to hit stores until around March 2012.

One of the game’s other potentially cool features is that you can take a shot of your own face and use that in the customise a fighter to battle against mates using the PS Vita’s 3G internet of WiFi.

The PS Vita is release towards the end of December in Japan, with a European roll out expected early next year and Reality Fighters is expected to be one of the early titles on the new Sony handheld.